White House responds to Twitter hashtag a year too late

In the summer of 2012, the Twitter hashtag #ObamaCareInThreeWords enjoyed a brief burst of popularity from opponents of the health-care overhaul. Until Thursday morning, the most recent tweet with the hashtag dated back to June 29, when Speaker John Boehner retweeted a statement by @GOPWhip: “We. Will. Repeal.”

For no apparent reason, the long-dead hashtag rose again today to become one of the top-trending tags in the world, after the White House offered a long-delayed counter: “It’s. The. Law,” The tweet included a photo of the bill Obama signed in 2010.

Sure, the White House tweeted a factual statement: Obamacare is indeed the law of the land. But it likely won’t persuade anyone who opposes the legislation. It’s a textbook example of the logical fallacy known as “Just Because” or “Because I Said So.”

In response, many Twitter users sent the White House historical examples where the argument “It’s the law” did not prevent people from opposing a particular policy: